Madagascar's extraordinary biodiversity: Threats and opportunities

H Ralimanana, AL Perrigo, RJ Smith, JS Borrell… - Science, 2022 - science.org
Madagascar's unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat.
Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar's …

Madagascar's extraordinary biodiversity: Evolution, distribution, and use

A Antonelli, RJ Smith, AL Perrigo, A Crottini, J Hackel… - Science, 2022 - science.org
Madagascar's biota is hyperdiverse and includes exceptional levels of endemicity. We
review the current state of knowledge on Madagascar's past and current terrestrial and …

The effects of defaunation on plants' capacity to track climate change

EC Fricke, A Ordonez, HS Rogers, JC Svenning - Science, 2022 - science.org
Half of all plant species rely on animals to disperse their seeds. Seed dispersal interactions
lost through defaunation and gained during novel community assembly influence whether …

Undiscovered bird extinctions obscure the true magnitude of human-driven extinction waves

R Cooke, F Sayol, T Andermann, TM Blackburn… - Nature …, 2023 - nature.com
Birds are among the best-studied animal groups, but their prehistoric diversity is poorly
known due to low fossilization potential. Hence, while many human-driven bird extinctions …

Erosion of global functional diversity across the tree of life

CP Carmona, R Tamme, M Pärtel, F de Bello… - Science …, 2021 - science.org
Although one-quarter of plant and vertebrate species are threatened with extinction, little is
known about the potential effect of extinctions on the global diversity of ecological strategies …

Exposure to climate change drives stability or collapse of desert mammal and bird communities

EA Riddell, KJ Iknayan, L Hargrove, S Tremor… - Science, 2021 - science.org
High exposure to warming from climate change is expected to threaten biodiversity by
pushing many species toward extinction. Such exposure is often assessed for all taxa at a …

Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change

J Bergman, RØ Pedersen, EJ Lundgren… - Nature …, 2023 - nature.com
The worldwide extinction of megafauna during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene is
evident from the fossil record, with dominant theories suggesting a climate, human or …

[HTML][HTML] Where might we find ecologically intact communities?

AJ Plumptre, D Baisero, RT Belote… - Frontiers in Forests …, 2021 - frontiersin.org
Conservation efforts should target the few remaining areas of the world that represent
outstanding examples of ecological integrity and aim to restore ecological integrity to a much …

The past and future human impact on mammalian diversity

T Andermann, S Faurby, ST Turvey, A Antonelli… - Science …, 2020 - science.org
To understand the current biodiversity crisis, it is crucial to determine how humans have
affected biodiversity in the past. However, the extent of human involvement in species …

Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life

RV Gallagher, DS Falster, BS Maitner… - Nature ecology & …, 2020 - nature.com
Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand
challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and …